Focals are new Alexa-powered smart glasses

Dynamic District

October 27, 2018

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North, an Amazon-backed startup has revealed its smart glasses called Focals. These are priced at US $1,000.

While smart glasses never really took off because of their hefty designs and privacy concerns due to their cameras, the Focals smartly address both of these issues. First up, these glasses look remarkably normal as compared to something like Google Glass, and then, there’s no camera on the device.

The North Focals have a heads-up display which provides all the essential information, but since there’s no camera, the device cannot see the user’s view of the real world. Also, the onboard microphone on the device enables Alexa, but it turns on when the user decides to activate it.

North has come up with an intuitive user interface for the Focals. Users get a ring-like wearable called Loop. The Loop has a tiny joystick on it to help users navigate through the heads-up display without touching the glasses.

With Focals users can see information like weather, text messages, navigation directions, calendar events, etc. Alexa functionality can further perform various voice-enabled tasks.